“One of my fantasies, I guess you could call it, is to be a game show host — to be the next Bob Barker. I could envision myself doing that. I just never got the opportunity to fulfill that one. Maybe one of these days.”

Mark Shepperd isn’t one to put a lid on his own dreams, yet somehow, he manages to also spend much of his time serving his community and helping others.

The 51-year-old husband, father, radio personality, DJ, Elks member, volunteer firefighter — and the list goes on — recently applied for a position as an Upper Merion Township Police Officer. “Hopefully a few months down the road I’ll be one of Upper Merion’s finest,” the King of Prussia resident said.

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Last fall, on a whim, Shepperd went to an open audition held by the Philadelphia 76ers for a new courtside announcer. He’d previously worked at 94 WIP but had no sports announcing experience. “I’m just a regular disc jockey,” he said. Sixers executives listened to more than 100 applicants over three rounds of tryouts before offering the job to 93.3 WMMR’s Matt Cord, who’d previously held the courtside position for several years. Shepperd surprised himself by finishing in the top five.

“I try not to (hold back),” he said of his tendency to taking shots at new opportunities. “It’s difficult at times — it gets a little scary to step outside the box.”

Step outside of the box is just what the 32-year radio veteran did when he applied to be a police officer. “In my head, I have just as good a chance to make it as anybody else, and I don’t know unless I do it.”

Being a police officer, Shepperd said, is “another way to connect with the community — something I’d be very proud to do. It’s definitely a change of career,” he added. “A new adventure; a new chapter in my life.”

Shepperd currently works part time at 92.5 XTU, Philadelphia’s Country Station. He previously worked at 100.7 WLEV, a Bethlehem radio station, and was featured on “The WLEV Morning Express with Shep and Shelly,” with current ‘XTU Program Director Shelly Easton.

“Radio has been, I guess, my whole life so far,” he said, adding that he’s “been the production director at several Philly-area radio stations … but mostly on-air talent for those 32 years.”

It was Shepperd’s older brother, who worked on William Paterson University’s radio station as a student, who sparked his interest in radio. “He didn’t go into the business, and I did,” Shepperd said with a laugh, adding that his parents “weren’t too crazy about (his career choice). It’s not the typical 9 to 5 job, but I’ve always enjoyed entertaining people, and that was one way to do it. In high school I was in a polka band, and we did a number of weddings all around the Jersey area where I grew up.”

One weekend out of the year Shepperd is “the voice of the feast” at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church’s La Grande Festa Italiana in Bridgeport. He provides Friday night DJ music and announcements through the weekend. “It’s a July tradition,” he said.

For about as long as he’s been in radio, Shepperd also has run his own disc jockey company called M&M Music Masters, keeping him “busy on weekends” with weddings and private parties.

“Busy” sounds like an understatement when Shepperd talks about his life. “There’s just so much going on locally,” he said, as if he can’t help but invest his time in “this and that.”

Shepperd and his wife, Brenda, “have six kids altogether,” ranging in age from 31 to 11, and seven grandkids. Their two youngest children are students in Upper Merion Area School District, and the rest all live within a few miles of their home, he said.

“(Brenda) and I consider the area of King of Prussia to be a hub, because it’s so close to everything, and there’s so much to do here as far as volunteering and trying to help better our community,” Shepperd said.

He and Brenda are very involved with Norristown Elks Lodge 714. According to Shepperd, Brenda’s older brother, David DeStefano, was instrumental in keeping the lodge alive when members lost the original building on Haws Avenue in Norristown in the early 1980s.

The nonprofit fraternal organization “does a lot of good in the community,” Shepperd said. “We help veterans and youth …, we promote patriotism. The neat thing about the Elks is it is a truly American organization.”

Shepperd said his 93-year-old father, Kenneth, a retired U.S. Marine, served as “one of the first dog handlers in World War II. Our 22-year-old son, Steven (Burris), a Marine, recently came home from Afghanistan, where he spent seven months locating and dismantling IED’s (roadside bombs),” Shepperd added. “So we’re extremely happy to have him back home with us now.

“I’m just very emotional when it comes to promoting patriotism. I’ve been heading up the (Elks’) flag ceremony on or around Flag Day in June, over at Valley Forge National (Historical) Park, next to Washington Memorial Chapel. “To me, there’s nothing that is more emotional than seeing our flag on top of a flag pole, just blowin’ away in the breeze. It’s just a beautiful thing.”

Volunteering for Upper Merion Township Volunteer Fire Company is another passion of Shepperd’s, one he joked that he should have pursued in his earlier years, but for whatever reason, he waited until he was middle-aged. “I ran with Swedesburg Station 49 for a while, and now I run with King of Prussia Station 47,” he said. “There are less stressful things to do with the Upper Merion Fire Company — there are a lot of other jobs behind the scenes — but I wanted to be a firefighter, one that rides on the truck and helps put out the fire. I just think it’s an incredible thing to do.”

Shepperd also lends a hand to Brenda, a Boy Scouts district commissioner, by serving as a liaison between Troop 551 and Upper Merion Baptist Church, where the scouts meet. Together, Shepperd and his wife also serve on the Upper Merion Township Tricentennial Committee, and they raise funds for March of Dimes and Easter Seals.

“Volunteerism across the board, in this day in age, is down,” Shepperd said. “Membership is down across the country at Elks clubs; membership is down across the country as far as volunteer firefighters.

“Husbands and wives both work these days to make ends meet, they’re taking the kids here and there and I understand that. I just kind of chuckle when … people say, ‘I don’t have time.’ I just kind of smile and say, ‘You’re talking to the wrong person.’

“I think it’s a state of mind, and if you really want to do it, you just step up and say, ‘Let’s do it.’ Yeah, it does take up your time, but hopefully that time spent helping the community, helping others, will kind of rub off on our kids if they see what we’re doing.

“And not everything you do you get paid for,” Shepperd said. “It’s the feeling that you get on the inside, the sense of accomplishment, sense of pride, not only for yourself but for your community as well.”